Hurts So Good!

I knew the first few weeks of training were going to be a bit of trial and error, but necessary to evaluate my limitations. After another week or so, I think I have a little bit better understanding- but it did come with a cost. Minus the two days I was down sick (very grateful it wasn't a whole week, like others with the same flu!) training was mostly treadmill and strength training.

Saturday, I took a hike up Big Baldy, a 3.5 mile hike (5.6 km.) with 1000 ft. (304 m.) of vertical gain per mile. It's a nice little mountain located on the west side of Mount Timpanogos and a jumping off point for the Everest Ridge route that's particularly popular in winter here (Utah). While the distance wasn't trying, the challenge for me was the elevation gain. I greatly underestimated how weak I was from being sick; it took me two full days to recover. What I'm observing is that my recovery isn't as quick as it was before I got sick- something I'll have to take into consideration from now on. That judgement lapse aside, it's hard to have a bad day in the mountains! The view was amazing and well worth the effort. While the distance is shorter than the Elbrus Race, this trail will work well while I'm getting back into shape.

To change things up this week, I've returned to one of my old favorites: bleachers! As a bobsledder, I would get giddy thinking about running bleachers in the summer. I just LOVED the challenge; sweat dripping down your body, muscles pumped and music booming in your ears. I love the solitude of an empty stadium, full of promise and potential victory for those who are willing to put in the effort. To me, it's inspiring. There are tons of workouts possible when running bleachers, everything from sprints and plyometrics to long slow endurance training. Some I've picked off websites and added to and some I've been doing for so long, I hardly remember who I learned them from. You can cut down the warm-up time if needed, my warm-up's are a bit longer, since it takes me longer than average to get warm.

Here's one of my favorite plyo workouts to get the quads and glutes burning:
- 10-15 minute warm-up jog or speed walk
- 5 minutes easy bleacher jog (up and down)
- Jump up each step, one at a time with two feet together until you reach the top. If you want to kick it up a notch, drop your rear with each landing into a formal squat. Keep an eye on your knees and don't let them go over your toes.
- Side squats across the top to the next section of steps
- Easy jog back down
- Side shuffle back to your starting point
- Repeat

For endurance and base strength, here's the workout I did this morning (remember, I'm a beginner right now, so feel free to ramp it up):
- 10-15 minute warm-up jog or speed walk
- 5 minutes easy bleacher jog
- Walking lunges up each step until you reach the top, concentrating on getting that perfect angle to engage the glutes. If the steps are too small, you may want to skip a step to get the right angle. Keep chest up and resist using momentum- allow your legs to do all the work. 
- Jog across to the next set of stairs
- Sprint down, concentrating on keeping abs tight and body centered. Think, 'fast feet'. If you have balance issues or are feeling extra fatigued, use your common sense with the speed.
- Repeat

With so many plyometric exercises available, there are a ton of variables that can be worked into a good bleacher workout. Today, I followed my workout with some more treadmill time, half a protein shake, tuna and a lot of water. With recovery being my biggest enemy, it's vital that I give my body all the advantage I can.

October Indoor Training - Charles

I was in Utah doing some work at the office and house there this past week. While there I decided to take the opportunity to train inside, since I had easy access to equipment that I don't have access to in Colorado at the moment.

Here's my training log whiteboard from Monday through Wednesday, October 14-16.

Monday: 
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 6:50 - 1000'
SuperSet: 3 x {
SkiErg: L5 - 1:30 - 209m, 201m, 203m
IceTool Chinup: 2 x 3 (full hang)
Machine Lat Pulldown: 25 @ L6
Incline Chest Press: 25 @ 45 lb (only 2 sets)
Back Hyperextension->Superman Plank: 15, 10 seconds
}
Incline Treadmill: [1096']
4.157 mi - 50:00 - 5% - (4.988 ave.) - [12:02 pace] - 1097.448' - (1317/21.95 vert per hour/minute)

Tuesday:
Inversion: 2:15
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 6:26 - 1000'
SuperSet: 3 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 2 x 5
Roman Chair Ab Situp: 15
}
IceTool Bodyweight Squat: 10/15/20 [left/right]
High Box Squat: 25 @ 155/175 lb
Parallel Box Squat: 5 @ 65/65/115 lb
Stairmaster:
Time: 24:00
Steps/Minute: 80
Feet: 1280.00
Miles: 0.27
VAM: 975.4

Wednesday AM:
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 9:57 - 1500'
SuperSet: 3 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 6
Roman Chair Twist: 10
Roman Chair Situp: 15
}
Ski Erg: L5 - 3:21 - 500m
Experimenting with various upper body exercises
Jacob's Ladder: 11:00 - 696'

PM:
ITM: [1055']
5.00 mi - 49:57 - 4% - (6.006 ave.) - [9:59 pace] - 1056' - (1268/21.14 vert per hour/minute)

Training Log Whiteboard for Thursday and Friday, October 17-18

Thursday:
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 10:14 - 1500'
SuperSet: 2 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 7
Roman Chair Twist: 10
Roman Chair Situp: 10
}
Band Goodmorning: 25 ea side with purple band
IceTool Bodyweight Squat:
1-leg from parallel box - 2 x 3 ea leg
with 1 leg on 6" box - 15 ea leg
Parallel Box Squat: 5 @ 115 lb, 5 x 5 @ 65 lb
Stairmaster: Time: 4:00
Steps/Minute: 125
Feet: 333.33
Miles: 0.07
VAM: 1524.0
Incline Treadmill: [204']
.261 mi - 4:01 - 15% - (3.899 ave.) - [15:23 pace] - 206.712' - (3088/51.46 vert per hour/minute)

Friday: 
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 13:10 - 2000'
Hyper/Superman Plank/GHR/Twist/Situp: 10 ea.
Parallel Box Squat: 6 @ 65 lb
IceTool Chinups: 5
Mahine Lat Pulldowns: 25 @ L6
Leg Extension: 10 ea @ 52.5 lb
Dumbbell Lateral Shoulder: 25 @ 10 lb ea
Romanian Deadift [Narrow]: 10 @ 135 lb

Thursday and Friday I was pretty wasted and unrecovered from all the squats and chinups I worked on. I decided to mix it up a bit and rather than do a little warmup, then weights and finish with an hour of cardio, which wasn't working very well at the time I would do my cardio first, then see if I had the energy for the weights.

Training Log Whiteboard for Saturday October 19

Saturday:
Incline Treadmill: [836']
5.285 mi - 60:00 - 3% - (5.285 ave.) - [11:21 pace] - 837.144' - (837/13.95 vert per hour/minute)
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 32:22 - 5500'
SuperSet: 2 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 10
Twist: 10
Situp: 10
}
SuperSet: 5 x {
Parallel Box Squat: 5 @ 65 lb
IceTool Negative Chins: 3 [pull from standing, then 5 seconds descend to full hang]
}
Sumo Romanian Deadlifts: 5 x 5 @ 135 lb

That seemed to work out okay for me. I then drove back to Colorado where I'll be doing a lot of outdoor training at temps below 20 degrees F in the morning, on snow and ice covered dirt roads and trails. Note the frost on my chin, collar, and earbuds.

Elbrus Race Records

Elbrus Race posted a new article [HERE] about the conclusion of the 2013 event, with the records as they stand. Remember that these aren't sanctioned by a Skyrunning Federation or whatever, though they might be a bit faster than the ones they've established as records.

Todd Gilles and 3rd Place Trophy

RE: Classic Race: Among the athletes, who run Classic route (the route from Barrels refuge till 5000 m) the winner was Valentin Vergiljush (who was the Winner in International Elbrus Race in 2009). The second was Russian Alexander Popov, the third was American Todd Gilles. 

And if you recall, the Polish team talked to me about how my blogs helped them with training and logistics..

RE: Extreme Race: The great result showed also Polish athletes Daniel Choinacki (he became the third in the race) and Blazej Lyjak. 

Polish Racer with 3rd Place Trophy

An interesting statistic from the Extreme Race results of Kilian Jornet and Russian Vitaly Shkel:

showed the great surprise: in the extremely hard fight the both athletes reached the finish line at 5000 m simultaneously, with the result 2 hrs 37 min 06 sec.  The average speed of their climb was 16 vertical meters gain per 1 minute! (16 meter is more or less altitude of standard 5-stores house – so try to walk by ladder to 5 store within 1 minute  and repeat it 173 times!!!)

For our purposes we'll convert that to 960 VAM.

That's a great training goal. Sustain 1000 VAM for 3-4 hours.

Now for the Records, another worthy goal:

There’re actual Elbrus records, set in International Elbrus Rаces:

[Extreme] Andrzej Bargiel (Poland)  from Azau to West Elbrus top showed the result 3 hrs 23 min 37 sec (2010)

[Female Classic] Svetlana Sharipova (Kazakhstan) has established the women's record at the route from the Barrels, which lasts till now: 3 hrs 21 min 29 sec. This is so far the absolute female record in speed climb of the highest point of Europe from the Barrels. (2006)

[Male Classic] Anton Proshenko (Russia)  on Barrels-West top route showing time 2 hrs 28 Min 02 sec! (this is so far the absolute speed record ascent on Mount Elbrus from Barrels). (2012)

Starting From Zero- Jen Hamilton

As a naturally active personality, starting from zero is one of my least favorite things, the other is feeling weak in front of others, so I'm going to pretend no one is reading these posts and we'll get along just fine!

More than one infomercial trainer has touted that the hardest part of getting physically fit is the first day- it's a lie. Anyone can do the first day, or even the first week, it's weeks two and three that will kill your momentum before you can establish the habit. With my glutes still screaming and my legs fatigued from the second week of 2 hour treadmill days at 15% (interspersed with 25 min. stair climber sessions and strength training), I 'treated' myself to a muddy trail run. More for a mental break, I thought I would feel stronger and tougher than I have. I'm embarrassed to admit that even with barely doing the minimal, my body is worn out. While getting outside was a great reminder of why I'm training and I thoroughly enjoyed the vacant trails, it was a bit discouraging to be reminded of my lack of fitness. I felt painfully slow and heavy, so getting rid of 35 extra lbs. from steroid treatments is first on the list of improvements. Challenging trails that used to bring a goofy grin to my face were now taunting me as I drudged slowly with my head down.

A coach years ago told me that my body is capable of so much more than I can fathom and it's important to trust in it's ability to adapt and get stronger. She told me that if I would have faith, I would be amazed at the outcome. But with my body still recovering from an extended illness, my faith in it's abilities has been shaken. I spent the entire run muttering to myself, and it wasn't even an internal monologue, is was audible, crazy person muttering. It can be remarkably frustrating when your body isn't performing how you think it should! After purging all my negativity and concerns into the mountain air, I could only come to one conclusion; Elbrus by choice, or my current condition by default. I'd have to test my new limits to find out where they are.

So, this week's goals are:
1- Put on the blinders. Focus only on the next workout.
2- When getting discouraged, remember to be kind and patient to my healing body.
3- Recovery focus through nutrition (lean proteins, more veggies) and more sleep.

Focusing on these three things goals should take me through the next week of training. Nothing feels better than looking back at how far you've come. Looking forward to that day!

Trail Running in the Snow

This week on Wednesday I did 2 miles, on Thursday I did 4 miles, and the plan was to do at least 6 today, Friday, 11 October. Tonight is our G+ Hangouts-on-Air for #ELBRUSRACECHAT, that we posted pretty heavily on our FACEBOOK PAGE. We have a slew of good questions to answer, and hope to have the YouTube recording and transcripts up pretty quickly after it's done.

Yesterday for Summit County Colorado there was a "Winter Storm Warning" with as much as 20" of snow predicted. At least at the lower elevations, below 11,000' there wasn't all that much snow. Maybe 4". I decided to go out for my run this morning after Angie left for her skating lesson with Todd. I felt like Mr. Pearl Izumi, with a PI windpro hoodie, windpro tights, and Trail N2 shoes.

The lower section of Keystone Gulch Road was pretty bare, with snow only in the shadows. Some of this was quite sloppy muddy wet, and I did some sliding around. About 2 miles up it was covered entirely with snow. There were puddles of muddy slush hidden under the snow surface. The maintenance trucks for Keystone Resort left icy tracks of packed snow. Overall it was a ton of fun. At 3 miles I decided I was good for one more uphill mile, so I went up to 4 miles.

Here's a little Instagram Video I made in Vine showing the surface I was running in, and the surrounding snow-covered trees.

One of my goals today was to work hard on keeping a consistent smooth even pace, up and down. These Strava Stats show that especially on the way uphill I was pretty smooth at 15:00 pacing.

On the way down the snow felt great underfoot and I just cut loose, relatively. I did a couple of pretty fast mile splits, then for the 7th mile I took a little walking break to hydrate and catch my breath. Then I picked the pace back up for the final mile.

Running in the snow is great training for Elbrus Race. It's what you'll be running on in Russia. Eight miles is a good training distance, since the Classic Race is a little over 9 miles round trip. Four miles up and down with about 1000' of elevation gain and loss is good. Training at 9,300' and up is great.

I'm pretty stoked about how fast I did this in slippery wet and cold conditions. Of course, now I have to dry out my shoes ...

Trail Running Training at 3,000 Meters in Colorado

One of my favorite things to do is trail running. I especially love to run at high altitude. Summit County Colorado is perfect with several long trails and gravel or jeep roads over 3,000 meters in elevation.

Snow and Ice on the Gravel Road

Hard work at high elevation can help to make the acclimatization process go much faster, without the days of hanging out at 10,000' camp required by those who live and train at sea level. I attribute our success on Orizaba last March to our training on the Colorado Fourteeners the whole winter previous.

I'm enjoying this transitional season as Fall progresses into Winter with falling leaves, colder temps, and the slow buildup of ice and snow on the roads and trails. I'll have to start wearing spikes before too long. I'm looking forward to it.

-- Charles

Introducing Team Athlete Jen Hamilton

We're happy to announce our newest team member Jen Hamilton. We'll put up a more thorough bio later, but here's a post from our Facebook Page:

Post by Seven Summits Quest.